Afghan President Hamid Karzai to US Special
Ops: Get Out 24 Feb 2013 Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has ordered all U.S. Special Forces out of two key
provinces within two weeks, accusing Afghan units under
their jurisdiction of being responsible for the torture,
abuse, and disappearance of Afghan civilians. The deadline
was announced today by Karzai spokesman Aimal Faizi at a
hastily convened press conference, and later repeated in a
statement from the Presidential Palace. The decision came
after Karzai met Sunday with his National Security Council.
According to the statement, during the meeting "it became
clear that armed individuals belonging to US Special Forces
engaged in harassing, annoying, torturing, and even
murdering innocent people."

Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai orders US torture
troops to leave 24 Feb 2013 US special forces
have been ordered to leave a region of Afghanistan over
claims they used local soldiers to torture or kill innocent
people. Elite troops have been given two weeks to get out of
troubled eastern Wardak province by Afghan president Hamid
Karzai. Those engaged in 'harassing, annoying,
torturing and even murdering innocent people' will be handed
over to the government, said his
spokesman.

US to leave troops in Afghanistan after
2014, says German official 22 Feb 2013 The US
defence secretary, Leon Panetta, and his Nato counterparts
are considering leaving 8,000 to 12,000 troops in
Afghanistan after 2014, but a dispute arose on Friday
between the US and Germany over whether the force would be
international or purely American. The conflicting accounts
came as Nato defence ministers gathered in Brussels to
discuss the endgame of the 11-year-old war. The German
defence minister, Thomas de Maizière, told reporters
Panetta had told him at the meeting that the US would leave
8,000-10,000 troops in the country at the end of 2014. But
Panetta, speaking to reporters later, called De Maizière's
comments inaccurate.

U.S. drone strikes up sharply in
Afghanistan 23 Feb 2013 One morning recently, a
teenager named Bacha Zarina was collecting firewood on her
family's farm in eastern Afghanistan. About 30 yards away,
as relatives recall, two Taliban commanders stood outside a
house. A missile screamed down from the sky, killing the two
men instantly. Two chunks of shrapnel flew at Bacha Zarina
and lodged in her left side. Her family took her to the
nearest hospital, a half-hour drive away, but she died en
route, an accidental victim of the rapidly escalating
U.S.-led campaign of drone strikes in Afghanistan. She was
14 or 15 years old.

Gibbs: I was told not to acknowledge
existence of drone program 24 Feb 2103 Robert
Gibbs, President Barack Obama's former press secretary, says
that he was once instructed by the White House not to
acknowledge the administration's use of drones. "When I went
through the process of becoming press secretary, one of the
first things they told me was, you're not even to
acknowledge the drone program," Gibbs said on MSNBC's "Up
With Chris Hayes" on Sunday. "You're not even to discuss
that it exists." Or, to paraphrase an oft-quoted line from
David Fincher's 1999 film "Fight Club": The first rule of the drone
program is you do not talk about the drone
program.

Bomber killed near Afghan capital's
diplomatic zone: police 24 Feb 2013 Afghan
security forces shot dead at least one would-be suicide
bomber on Sunday in a high-security area of Kabul, home to
government departments and diplomatic missions, police said.
The shooting happened near a construction site that was
stormed by Taliban gunmen in April last year. They began a
nine-hour attack, firing rockets at western embassies and
nearby hotels frequented by foreigners.

Polish prosecutors to drop charges in CIA
jail inquiry: report 19 Feb 2013 Poland will
drop charges against a former intelligence chief prompted by
allegations that the CIA was allowed to run a secret prison
in Poland for 'al Qaeda' suspects, a major Warsaw newspaper
said on Tuesday. Human rights activists and lawyers for men
who allege they were detained by the CIA in Poland say the
Polish authorities are trying to stifle the
investigation because it would become politically
embarrassing if it led to trials. The daily Gazeta
Wyborcza first reported early last year that prosecutors
looking into allegations of a secret CIA jail, and how much
Polish officials knew about it, had raised criminal charges
against ex-intelligence chief Zbigniew Siemiatkowski...
Several sources close to the inquiry contacted by Reuters
last year confirmed prosecutors had drawn up charges against
Siemiatkowski. On Tuesday, the same newspaper cited an
unnamed source as saying the charges against Siemiatkowski
would soon be withdrawn.

Iran's IRGC cyber-warriors take control of
mock enemy's spy drone 24 Feb 2013 Iran's
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully
taken control of the mock enemy's reconnaissance drone on
the first day of the Payambar-e Azam 8 (The Great Prophet 8)
military drills, which are being held in the southeastern
province of Kerman. The spokesman of the war games,
Brigadier General Hamid Sarkheili, told reporters late on
Saturday that the IRGC forces took control of the drone's
guidance system and managed to bring it down. The IRGC
Ground Force started the Payambar-e Azam 8 exercise, which
includes practice maneuvers of various defense tactics, in
southeastern Iran on Saturday.

US warns Pakistan not to sign pipeline deal
with Iran 22 Feb 2013 The United States warned
Pakistan against entering 'deals with Iran that may be
sanctionable,' a reference to Pak-Iran gas deal. State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said during a media
briefing that Pakistan had better not sign agreement with
Tehran. However, she said Washington wanted to help Pakistan
overcome its energy crisis. [Right, more US tax
dollars to infuse billions into the 'coalition of the
bribed' -- the only way USociopaths can actually get
allies -- to benefit US corpora-terrorists pretending to
build foreign infrastructure and for Blackwater to pretend
to defend same. Hopefully, Pakistan will sign the deal with
Iran, regardless. --LRP]

Protests mark WikiLeaks suspect Bradley
Manning's 1,000th day in jail 23 Feb 2013
Supporters of Bradley Manning, the US soldier who is accused
of being behind the largest leak of state secrets in
America's history, held a series of rallies across the US
and the world on Saturday. The demonstrations in more than
70 locations were aimed at marking Manning's 1,000th day in jail and came as the
young soldier prepares to appear again before a military
court next week. Manning is being prosecuted by the US
government for allegedly transmitting confidential material
to the anti-secrecy campaigner Julian Assange's web
organisation WikiLeaks. The US government considers such
actions a threat to its national security.

Autopsy shows Palestinian prisoner died of
torture in Israeli jail 25 Feb 2013 Palestinian
Minister of Prisoners Affairs Eissa Qaraqe' said on Sunday
that autopsy revealed that Palestinian prisoner Arafat
Jaradat died of torture. "Traces of severe torture appeared
on Jaradat's body: neck, face and backbone," Qaraqe' told
reporters in a news conference held in the West Bank city of
Ramallah. Jaradat, 30, died in an Israeli prison on Saturday
after he was detained in one of the almost-daily Israeli
army raids in the West Bank since less than a week. Initial
Israeli media reports cited sources suggesting that Jaradat
died of a heart attack. Qaraeq' denied this claims,
describing it an "untrue Israeli claim."

Second bird flu patient dies in
Guizhou 25 Feb 2013 A 31 year old man died Friday after having contracted H5N1 bird flu earlier this
month, according to authorities in Guizhou. The website of
the province's health department said the man, who developed
symptoms of the virus February 3, died of multiple organ
failure. This is the second bird flu death in Guizhou in less
than two weeks, coming after a 21 year old woman died
February 13. Health officials have found no connection
between the two cases, and the two are reported to have come
into close contact with birds.

Scottish woman with serious 'flu-type
illness' airlifted to Leicester hospital 24 Feb
2013 A Scottish woman is in intensive care at a specialist
hospital in Leicester after contracting a suspected form of
swine flu. Jennifer Scott, 27, was transferred by helicopter
from Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary after she was
diagnosed with a serious "flu-type illness". Her condition
at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester was described as critical
but stable. A spokesman for NHS Dumfries and Galloway said:
"We have had a confirmed case of a significant flu-type
illness."

6.2-magnitude quake jolts central
Japan 25 Feb 2013 An earthquake measuring 6.2
on the Richter scale jolted central Japan on Monday, said
the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The quake took place
at 4:23 p.m. local time and the epicenter was initially
determined at degree 36.9 north latitude, 139.4 degree east
longitude, with a depth of 10 km. The temblor was marked
upper 5 in JMA seismic intensity of 7 in the area near the
epicenter in the northern Tochigi Prefecture.

6 underground tanks full of radioactive
waste are leaking at Washington State's Hanford Nuclear
Reservation 23 Feb 2013 Federal and state
officials say six underground tanks holding a brew of
radioactive and toxic waste are leaking at the country's
most contaminated nuclear site in south-central Washington,
raising concerns about delays for emptying the aging tanks.
The news has renewed discussion over delays for emptying the
tanks, which were installed decades ago and are long past
their intended 20-year life span. "None of these tanks would
be acceptable for use today. They are all beyond their
design life. None of them should be in service," said Tom
Carpenter of Hanford Challenge, a Hanford watchdog group.
"And yet, they're holding two-thirds of the nation's
high-level nuclear waste." Just last week, state officials
announced that one of Hanford's 177 tanks was leaking 150 to
300 gallons a year, posing a risk to groundwater and
rivers.

US government mulls $16bn plea deal for BP
over Deepwater - report 23 Feb 2013 The US
government and Gulf Coast states are reportedly considering
offering BP Plc a deal under which the company will pay
$16bn to settle civil suits stemming from the 2010 Deepwater
Horizon disaster. The deal would cover the company's potential penalties under the Clean
Water Act and payments under the natural resources damage
assessment, the Wall Street Journal said, citing sources
familiar with the discussions. It was unclear if the deal
had been formally offered to BP; both the company and the US
Justice Department declined to comment.

Gene Rosen getting fed his lines by handler
or coach - Sandy Hook by Scotty Walker 08 Feb
2013 (Video) Creepy Gene Rosen was prompted to say
"TERRIFIED" at corner of firehouse by a woman. Was she at
his house with the children? Note the two guys in red &
black, they are seen when Rosen is circling around
practicing his lines as seen from chopper footage. Notice
the black tape over the police car at two seconds in. Since
when do police have time to tape over identifying words on
their car doors after being dispatched to a shooting? When
did they tape over their doors?

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